Rose of Truth: Lessons in Nobility
by Sumiregawa Nenene
Summary: PG for slight violent content. Juri has been having some strange things happen of late...and she won't take miracles as an excuse.
1. A Clash of Souls

The Rose of Truth: Lessons in Nobility  
  
Written by: Fire Senshi aka Juri-sempai aka Ka aka Tara Smith...don't even think about taking it places without telling me first!  
  
~~  
  
"You're late," came an acidic mutter that was nearly lost in the darkness and emptiness of the dojo.  
  
There was no response. The figure instead seemed to sneer in the harsh moonlight, taking off an outer jacket that covered the school uniform she wore.  
  
The other stood with poise near the shinai rack. "You know," the voice   
taunted slyly, "you would never dream of being late to a duel."  
  
Again, no response.  
  
"Unless, of course," - the voice knew it now had the upper hand - "it was by some extreme miracle."  
  
"Hardly," was the short, crisp response.  
  
"Really?" The once-waiting figure was now intrigued. Slowly, a hand reached to brush a few stray green locks from the face. "I'm sure another of the student council would beg to differ, or am I not correct?"  
  
Juri's eyes were shrewd as they peered at the man through slited lids. She huffed a bit haughtily, selecting one of the shinai. "And how would you know? Its not as though *you* are a member any longer."  
  
A faint smile crossed his face. "But Juri," he feigned in an uncharacteristically innocent voice, "don't you know the phrase? Once a member of the Council, always a member of the Council?"  
  
She returned the smile to the former kendo-team captain. "Only if you're there to be counted, dear Saionji." The man turned to hide his sudden anger and to choose his own shinai. "And you are most certainly not there."  
  
He regained control quickly, which made her think that her must have learned something after being expelled. "Perhaps so," he said with restrain, "but I do not understand your reason for being part of this at all."  
  
The two prepared themselves in starting positions for a spar. Saionji called the beginning. Both circled each other warily, their styles being different and hence unfamiliar to the other. "Ever think," Juri commented, apparently uninterested, "that you aren't supposed to?"  
  
Saionji was first to become restless, struck out first, aiming for the woman's left shoulder. She easily dodged the entire attempt by slipping to the side, far out of his reach. The kendo master grunted slightly, but quickly turned to defend himself against any type of attack. Juri made no such move.  
  
The man rose into a more ready position and they began to circle again. "Then tell me this," he also spoke as though he didn't care, "why are you even here tonight?"  
  
Juri's head tilted ever so slightly. "Because, I felt like it," she replied simply.  
  
"You lie!" Saionji's response was binding intense anger. He lashed out again, taking a swipe at her upper leg. Juri parried easily. The green-haired man backed out again.  
  
It was now the woman that was intrigued. She tilted her head once more and asked with one eyebrow raised quizzically: "So then what does it matter to you?"  
  
Saionji clenched his teeth. He unexpectedly lunged forward, now thrusting for the woman's chest. Juri was nearly caught. In a frenzy, she threw her entire weight to the side and back.  
  
She had avoided the practice sword, but Saionji's body slammed against hers and sent her spinning backwards. She flung out an arm in a last ditch attempt to regain her balance. It worked and she then remembered that was the reason why she chose fencing over kendo.  
  
However, Saionji recovered quicker than she, and used the falter to his   
advantage. Turning, he once again aimed for the leg she was attempting to use to balance. Seriously stirred, Juri tossed the arm still holding the sword to slow down the blow.  
  
This also worked, but she had barely enough time to remove all her appendages from his swing range. The practice sword she had been forced to clumsily move to block flew from her hands from the strength of the swing. It landed with a hollow wooden clatter behind the man, and now she backed away, clinging to her stinging, bent-backwards wrist.  
  
Saionji's grin seemed feral now. Juri clenched her teeth in pain and slited her eyes once again.  
  
"It matters, dear Juri. It means all to me." His eyes were dilating wildly in the mixture of darkness in the dojo.  
  
Taken aback, Juri pushed out through clenched teeth, "Why ever for, Saionji?"  
  
He began advancing. "Because, you represent everything that is him!" he growled out, shouting by the end as he raised his shinai high above his head.  
  
"You mean, then," she said on equal levels, "that I am everything you are not!"  
  
Hot fury ran through Saionji's blood and he lowered the sword with all his might. Ducking out with incredible speed, Juri rolled under the swing of her opponent, sliding past him and found her sword inexplicably in her hands.  
  
Even as the man realized his mistake and spun around, Juri spun opposite him still on the ground. The mystery sword found its target in Saionji's chest as they met. Both paused in their positions, breathing heavily.  
  
Saionji's mouth moved without his bidding, though there was no noise issuing from it. Juri, for her part, nearly dropped the practice sword to the ground, eyes wide with shock.  
  
After a while, they parted. For the most part they ignored each other as the shinai were placed back into the rack, both seeming to be thinking quietly to themselves.  
  
Finally, Juri paused and watched Saionji pack a few things away into a duffel bag that set on the bench. The moonlight reflected the soft smile that played on his face as he looked to her. "Can't have too many miracles in one night, can you, Juri-san?"  
  
The orange-haired woman picked up her jacket and put it on. Her face was straight-set though her eyes showed that she was thinking. "Hardly," was the short, crisp response.  
  
The dojo was now quite empty.  
  
~~ 


	2. Ghostly Hands

Juri Arisugawa was not one easily affected by her surroundings. As she wandered into her dorm room after a brisk walk through the cool night air she found herself to be sweltering hot, however.  
  
She had already started to remove her outer jacket before opening the door to her personal room. Honestly, if the maintenance men could have just asked what needed overall improvement instead of just coming to fix all the small complaints, the air conditioning would have been taken care of long before now. As it was it had been broken - what? Two years? Juri always did have such a hard time distinguishing how long she'd been taking classes here at Ohtori, let alone any other measurements of time.  
  
The student council member knew what she needed. The same thing she always needed at the end of each day - a shower. It was her outlet; her means of release. Today she was certainly had a reason for that. After all, how often does an inexperienced person in the art defeat the former kendo team captain at his own game?  
  
Juri completely undressed, leaving the locket on its designated place on the edge of her desk. She then padded lightly across the carpet to the bathroom on the tile. The tile itself comforted her. She felt it personified herself in many ways: plain, smooth, serene, and cool. Well, she was not always cool, but she did envy the tile for its ability to stay so even with such extreme heat around it, oppressing it.  
  
She wished that she could claim that the water was refreshing. Not that she could claim it was otherwise, but it still somehow left something to be desired to her. No one and nothing ever satisfied her and if asked she would have to say she didn't know why. But no one ever asked the right questions, either.  
  
She exited the shower quietly, doing her best to stay off of the cold tile. She toweled at her hair only briefly as she always did. Privately, she really hated the curls on the sides of her face and extended drying always made them more prominent. The student council member shook off any evidence that she was anything special as she pulled the pale, curve-hugging chemise over her head.  
  
As she tossed the towel negligently over the back of a chair, she heard a crashing sound outside. Juri jumped slightly, startled, and then headed quickly over to the window. A shadowed figure, small and possibly female, was running towards the side alley next to the building. Some bikes were scattered carelessly, knocked from the rack just below her sill. Juri's attention darted quickly back to the figure. Her heart nearly stopped.  
  
From the highlights of the lamplight outside, she caught the sight of purple hair, short and tousled. The clothes the figure was wearing was obviously the female Ohtori uniform, complete with aqua skirt. The shadow nearly dove into the darkness of the alley with the running motion of someone afraid of being caught.  
  
The woman shook her head dazedly, unsure as to what she had just witnessed. The one running...she had seemed to her like Shiori. Or had it been someone like Anthy? But the light had been to harsh to tell. Even now the shade of hair was fading from her mind.  
  
Juri felt her hand rise to her unadorned neckline in search of the certain comforting object. She closed the shades and felt her eyebrows nit together as she headed to the desk to pick up the locket.  
  
As she reached down for it however, she paused. Moving her hand slightly she observed the necklace. Its gold finish seemed very palor at that moment. The crevices of the design seemed to be dark, neverending holes and the surface glared back a pale whitish color. In her head, all she could hear were Saionji's words over and over again.  
  
"Can't have too many miracles in one night, can you Juri-san?"  
  
And her short, crisp response echoed faintly in the background. "Hardly."  
  
The fencer's hand edged unconciously away from the jewelry, shaking visibly. Juri's fuzzy vision cleared as she blinked suddenly, snapping from her reverie. The echo of her response to the Ex-Vice President's gripe remained in her head, though it seemed much more distant.  
  
By this point, the woman had become frustrated with herself. Angrily, the panther's hand pounced upon the links of the chain, creating a dull thud against the wood. She snatched it upwards hastily and fumbled with the clasp for a good many seconds before she found herself capable of linking it. Somehow, the click seemed so very final. So much so that Juri could not help, but bring her hands before herself again, scanning them frantically. As she watched them, they too began slowly fading with that whitish sickly glow.  
  
The cool exterior had since been broken, but now hardly any of it remained as she scrambled to remove the necklace. *Anything* to get rid of this awful light! Too many odd things had happened today and this was just the thing to top it all off. First that close encounter with who Juri could only assume to be Dios when she and Miki had been walking through a shortcut in the woods to his dorm. Then the duel with Saionji (and how he figured out about the encounter she'd never know, she had a feeling) and now this stupid locket.  
  
Catching a flash of light from out of the corner of her eye she half turned to see herself in the full length mirror stopping for a moment. The panther's lithe body was shown off in a few more places than normal from her current struggles. Her elbows were bent above her head as she reached for the clasp and as such the chemise hung even more awkwardly. But, quite suddenly, the woman saw much more than she had expected.  
  
A shadowy pair of snowy-white feathered wings adorned her back, splayed somewhat oddly, but certainly there. Juri blinked and shook her head lightly and briefly in an attempt to clear her obviously overwrought mind. As the feline-like-eyes noticed all too well when they opened, however, the wings remained. And then, just as suddenly as she'd noticed them, the wings burst apart - sending feathers strewn about the room - and it was all appearantly orchestrated by the simple chain that hung about her neck which pulsed almost *happily* with the destruction.  
  
Thourougly frightened now, she gave up on attempting to remove the chain normally and began tugging at it fiercely. Her athletic arm muscles litterally bulged at the effort and the necklace itself was burning her neckline, but the infernal thing refused to budge. She tugged relentlessly, over and over...  
  
After what seemed like an eternity the chain shattered with an amazingly loud noise. It was a ringing sound and broken links of gold glittered their way into every corner of the room. Panting from her efforts, the panther could do nothing more than look around. No evidence of any struggle could be seen and no feathers littered the floor. Head shaking now she looked again at her clenched fist that held the locket.  
  
As her fist opened to reveal it, she found that the white light pulsed once brightly - highlighting the crevices of her hand and very nearly blinding her. Through squinted eyes she watched the sickly light faded completely from the gold finish with a last faint flicker. Juri stared at it for a good minute to be sure nothing else happened. By that time her breathing had thankfully evened out.  
  
She firmly set the locket back in its place on the desk. Broken pieces of the chain hung precariously over the edge. Climbing onto her bed she curled up to try to fall asleep. She pulled the blanket tightly around her despite the sweat that she perspired because of it. She stayed in this little ball for a long time before she could actually manage to fall into a restless sleep.   
She couldn't fathom even in her dreams what had truely occured that night. Never was it the right answer...  
  
~~Elsewhere~~  
  
A purple haired girl ran into the building and pressed the button for the elevator. Only when the elevator door was closed did she take the time to catch her breath. Leaning against the wall she rested. There was a ping as it reached the designated floor and the girl walked out of it calmly. She shook out her sweat soaked hair. "You know what I think?" she inquired of the figure lounging on the couch.  
  
"What's that?" came the mellow voice.  
  
"I think she's figuring out the magic of it all..." The girl stopped before the couch, clearly awaiting a response to her statement.  
  
The figure smiled slowly.  
  
"Hardly."  
  
~~ 


End file.
